Is Instagram stealing bloggers?
Instagram continues to grow at a rapid rate, with an estimated monthly user base of over 700 million people. But is the social network causing a decline in traditional bloggers? Or is it just another hosting platform?
The Vuelio Bloggers Survey reveals that year-on-year there’s been an 11% decline in fashion and beauty blogs and a 2% decline in food and drink. These numbers are significant, especially when we consider lifestyle (up 3%), parenting (up 13%) and even travel (up 3%) have all risen.
The number of bloggers using Instagram has also risen – up 5% to 79% overall. While Facebook has also risen by 6%, the other major platforms (Twitter, Pinterest and – dare I say it – Google+) have all declined.
The gender split in social media preference also points to Instagram’s effect on the ‘declining’ blog topics. Both fashion and beauty, and food and drink are dominated by female bloggers – and Instagram is the preferred social network of female users, with 14% compared to just 10% male users.
Years after NYMag claimed ‘Instagram captions are the new blogging’, the platform is scooping up a new wave of influencers who don’t need to spend any time or effort on setting up blog, managing a website or buying hosting. All they need to do is create an account and go – allowing them to focus on creating content, which is what blogging is all about.
And the rewards can be huge, with an estimated $50K dollars for a sponsored post if you have 1M-3M followers, it can become a genuine source of significant income. It is also relatively low maintenance, though better photography and more engaging captions will inevitably lead to more success.
So should all bloggers join the Instagram revolution?
No. Of course not. Blogging is, at its root, about personal expression. If Instagram works for influencers who enjoy the easy set-up and prefer the strong visual focus, then that’s great. Though there is still an audience for longer form text and custom sites with custom content. It’s about finding what works for you.
Is Instagram wooing you away from your blog? Let us know in the comments below!
No matter where influencers work, Vuelio has you covered. Find out more about our Influencer Database.
Instagram isn’t wooing me away from my travel blog, but I hope it woos others! Travel blogging has already become a highly saturated market where it’s increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. Thankfully, as an early adopter, I’m already well and truly and established, but I often feel it must be difficult for any new travel bloggers starting out now. The big problem with Instagram for me is that you can’t link to anything (other than through your profile link). From a commercial perspective, this is a serious limitation to my mind.
I think every area of blogging is now seeing a highly saturated market where you really have to be special to rise to the top and join the established influencers. Hopefully this will make everyone improve and what we get is very high quality blogging. And yes about the lack of links, allowing such long ‘captions’ but not links seems ridiculous if it’s serious about being a content platform. I can only imagine it would grow if it allowed users to access the internet from it!